Four simple habits to boost your energy levels
One of the most common goals I work on with clients, and something that will definitely have its own page on the new-look website, is boosting energy levels. Feeling tired, lethargic, and lacking that spark for life is something that is all too common these days, and it’s often down to a host of factors. Here are four healthy habits, one each from the think, eat, live, move elements that form the balance method, to provide you with a truly holistic approach to putting that spark back in your life and a spring in your step: 1. Think: Get checked out If you’ve been feeling low on energy for some time, before you do anything else, have a chat with your GP. It’s important to rule out common medical causes of fatigue or, in some instances, to diagnose the issue and begin to take appropriate actions. 2. Eat: Small and often (and healthily) Nutrition can play a powerful part in boosting (or crashing) your energy levels. Food contains calories after all, and it’s that energy that you need to make every aspect of your body function optimally. But it’s not just calories that are important. Many nutrients play a role in providing and delivering energy to your body and mind, whilst refined foods and stimulants can have a negative impact. Before you get overwhelmed by what to focus on though, try this simple technique first: Eat smaller healthy meals with a good source of protein (think chicken, fish, nuts, seeds, peas, beans, or legumes) more often. This advice comes straight from the Harvard Medical School, and it’s based on the knowledge that smaller meals can prevent you from getting those big energy spikes after eating, followed by that even bigger slump. Eating small and often, including a good source of protein, can help to better regulate your blood sugar levels. It also prevents too much blood from being diverted away from your brain and muscles to your stomach (to digest the large meal you’ve just eaten), keeping you more alert as a result. 3. Live: Establish a sleep routine If there’s one thing you can do quickly to improve your sleep, it’s to practice going to bed and getting up at the same time EVERY DAY. Yep, that means weekends too. It helps to reset your body clock (fancy name, Circadian Rhythm), which manages your energy levels, alertness, and all of your major bodily functions throughout the day on a set timer. Do the same things each day and you help it to literally get into its rhythm, leaving you tired when you should be, and full of beans when you need it too! 4. Move: Feeling tired? Go for a walk Research has suggested that a short, gentle walk outside (just 20-30 minutes) may be more effective for boosting your energy levels than a nap, using stimulant substances like caffeine, or even stimulant medications. Why? It doesn’t seem to make sense, does it? When you’re tired, doing exercise should surely make you even more fatigued. But, much of how energetic you feel is to do with your hormones, and gentle exercise is brilliant for balancing them. Being stressed all day can lead to constantly high levels of adrenaline and cortisol, but moderate activity can help to bring these down, whilst at the same time boosting levels of feel-good hormones. The result: more energy. Oh, and better sleep too, which will give you even more energy. And better blood sugar control, which…you get the idea! More energy!!! Getting outside and active early in the day seems particularly effective but, as long as you’re not pushing yourself hard too late in the day (when it can delay sleep), being active at any time can help you to feel more lively. Make a change the balanced way If increasing energy is your goal, pick just one of the four tips above to work on this week. Start small. Be consistent and don’t be afraid to ask me for help if you need it. I’ll be happy to chat and offer advice to help you find your balance.
Six steps to sleep soundly through a sizzling summer
Higher temperatures make getting a good night’s sleep much tougher. Here are six steps you can take to snooze a little better through the warm nights… 1) Keep the curtains closed in the day Blocking out sunlight can help keep room temperature down. Better still, invest in blackout curtains so that you’ll also be able to block out light at night too. Any light source, no matter how small, can cause you body to produce hormones associated with alertness, leaving you wide awake. 2) Shower before bedtime Use tepid water to help cool your body down. Sleep is a time when we move from the more active (higher temperatures) of the day to the more restful (lower temperatures) of rest and recovery. It’ll also leave you feeling clean and comfortable and help you to relax. 3) Invest in a fan High quality fans can be used to lower the room temperature, and provide a source of white noise, which is known to help you nod off. You can also place them by windows to push hot air out and even stick a pop bottle full of water in the freezer until it’s a solid block of ice, then place in front of the fan to drive temperatures down. 4) Opt for less layers That means bedding and clothes. As mentioned earlier, you want to be cool to sleep well. That high tog duvet you bought for the winter is no use on a balmy summer’s night. Instead, use multiple thinner layers and strip off the ones you don’t need for warmer nights. On the warmest nights, often just a sheet will do. The same with your PJ’s, swap out those flannel trousers for something a bit more comfortable, or you can always go ‘au naturel’. 5) Go low Warm air rises so the nearer to the ground you are, the cooler you’ll be. In his book ‘Sleep: The myth of 8 hours, the power of naps and the new plan to recharge your body and mind’, sleep coach to the world’s sporting stars Nick Littlehales suggests that you don’t even need a bed, just a comfortable mattress that fits your body’s needs. There’s no need to throw the frame out just yet; simply consider using airbeds or bedding on the floor if you’re really struggling on hotter nights. 6) Try sleeping outside Summer is the perfect time of year to have a little adventure; go camping or simply sleep in the back garden with the kids for a little adventure. The air is fresher and you’ll feel refreshed and recharged because you’ve re-synced your body with its natural rhythms of daylight and darkness. Just don’t go for the ‘au naturel’ option suggested earlier unless you’ve got really high fences, or you may prevent your neighbours from sleeping for months! Try just one of these to start with and hopefully you’ll feel less like this… And more like this…
Water: the stuff of life
As it’s the hottest week of the year so far, I thought it might be useful to give you some helpful hints and tips on water and staying hydrated. Hopefully something in here helps you to find your fluid balance. How much fluid do you need? Use this calculation to work out your base needs… Age: up to 30 = 35-40ml of water per kg body weight (multiply your weight in kg by 0.035 or 0.04) Age: 31-54 = 30-35ml of water per kg body weight (multiply your weight in kg by 0.03 or 0.035) Age: 55-65 = 30ml of water per kg body weight (multiply your weight in kg by 0.03) Age: 65+ = 25ml of water per kg body weight (multiply your weight in kg by 0.025) So, for example, Bob is 56 years old and weighs 80kg, the calculation he needs to do is: 80kg x 0.03 = 2.4 litres per day What about exercise? The more exercise you do the more fluid you’ll need. Hard exercise can increase your daily fluid needs by up to a litre for every hour done. Check out the tests later in this article to work out if you’re getting the right amount for your needs. What counts towards my fluid intake? There’s water in your food, so if you’re eating a healthy, balanced diet, it’s thought that around 20% of your basic water needs are met. So for our example above, Bob would be getting just under half a litre each day through food and need to drink around 2 litres each day. Drinks that count towards hydration include: Water Squash Milk Fruit juice (this will hydrate you but can be higher in calories so you may want to dilute it with water) Fizzy drinks (yep even these hydrate you; again though they’ll often be higher in calories so limit the amount you consume) Tea and coffee (the vast majority of what’s in your mug is water so it serves to hydrate you, outweighing the diuretic effects of the caffeine. If you’re sensitive to caffeine you may want to limit the amount of coffee you drink to just a few each day) Shandy (yep because there’s very little alcohol in here, it can hydrate you. Too much booze though will dehydrate you, so either limit the amount or drink plenty of water at the same time) How do I check that I’m getting the amount I need? Every one of us needs a slightly different amount of fluid. Whilst the calculations above are helpful, you’ll likely need to make tweaks to how much you drink based on: Your genetics Your training regime Your diet The weather Illness Age, gender, pregnancy, the number of diuretics like alcohol you’ve been cons,ing, sleep, stress and medication Because of this, there are some great tests you can do to see if you’re getting what you need: 1) How do you feel? Tiredness, dry mouth and skin, headaches, irritability, unusual hunger and aching muscles can all be signs that you’re dehydrated. Listen to your body and if you think you’re thirsty, drink fluids little and often to help rehydrate yourself. 2) The pee test. Urine should be light or straw-coloured. Darker urine or even only urinating a few times each day suggest you’re dehydrated. The NHS suggests that going to the loo less than 3 or 4 times a day is a good sign. 3) For the exercisers out there, weighing yourself before and after training can be a great marker of hydration. Sadly if you’ve lost three pounds during your workout I’m sorry to say it won’t all be fat! Much of it will be water and will mean you need to rehydrate. Even just a 1-2% decrease in weight after a workout will mean you are dehydrated and need to replenish your fluids. If not you may feel unwell, tired and your exercise and mental performance can decrease significantly. Just as an example of how small a weight loss this can be, for me, weighing in at 70kg, even a loss of 0.5-1.5kg (1-3 lbs) after a session means I’m dehydrated. This would likely need me to drink somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 litres of fluid to replace these losses. Summary Drink little and often across the day using any combination of the drinks outlined. Monitor your hydration levels through how you’re feeling, your urine colour and your weight post-exercise. Over time you’ll learn the timings and amounts that work for you to maintain your fluid balance.
Full of beans or running on empty?
It’s an often talked about topic in health and fitness. Many of us say ‘I’d like to have more energy’ or ‘I want to feel less tired’. What actually is it that we’re asking for? How do I get more of it? Is it a real ‘thing’ or some mystical force like the powers superheroes possess in the movies? As with most things health and fitness, the answer is far from black and white. There are numerous reasons why you may feel more or less energetic. Let’s have a look at what they are. Food energy Your body needs calories from carbohydrates, fat and protein to live. You get these from food and drink which in turn get this energy from the sun. If you eat plants they absorb the energy directly and if you eat animal produce they’ve absorbed energy from sunlight and from the plants they’ve eaten. These foods are converted inside you to something known as ATP. This is the energy currency of your body and it’s the only one it accepts. It’s easy then. If I just eat more I’ll have more energy! Well yes to a certain extent, if you don’t eat enough your energy levels will be lower, much like if you don’t fill your car with petrol it can’t run. However, it’s not simply about quantity but also quality. For your body to convert the food into usable energy, it needs vitamins and minerals. This means you need foods that provide these in order to best access the energy, one of the reasons why getting your five-a-day is so important. The quality of the food also has an impact on what your body does with it. High sugar, refined foods cause your blood sugar levels to rise rapidly. Your body panics as too much sugar in your blood is harmful and so it rapidly releases a hormone known as insulin. Its job is to store away this energy to bring blood sugars back to normal and make you safe. This increases the likelihood of your body storing this food as fat, especially when your energy stores for your muscles and organs are already topped up because you haven’t done much exercise (we’ll look at that in a bit). Because your body panics when it senses rapid rises in blood sugars, it releases lots of insulin. This often means that too much sugar is removed from your blood and you feel really weak and tired. You know that feeling mid-afternoon after a big lunch or shortly after you’ve indulged in a sizeable treat? So rather than these energy rich foods giving you more energy, they actually make you feel more tired. Key messages for food energy: 1) Are you eating enough? Your body needs enough food to make enough energy. 2) Are you eating the right nutrients i.e. a mixture of healthy carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals? 3) Are you eating too many refined, processed foods? Even though they’re full of energy, they’ll leave you feeling exactly the opposite. Fluid energy Water plays a key role in keeping you energised too. That’s because your blood is mostly made of the stuff and it’s your blood that carries the nutrients we’ve already talked about around your body. So how much should you drink? Multiply your weight in kilograms by the figures below to help you work it out: Age (years) Multiply your weight in kg by this figure 16-30 0.035-0.04 (dependent on the individual) 31-54 0.03-0.035 (dependent on the individual) 55-65 0.03 65+ 0.025 There are other things to consider too: How much exercise do you do? If you train regularly, use this guide created by the American College of Sports Medicine to work out how much extra fluid you need: https://www.acsm.org/docs/brochures/selecting-and-effectively-using-hydration-for-fitness.pdf Warmer climates will mean you need to drink more than normal, as will illness. There is water in food too. If you’re eating your five-a-day and a normal diet you’ll get around 20% of your daily fluid needs. Caffeinated drinks probably won’t dehydrate you like you may think. Most of what is in a cup of coffee is water so this will actually offset the dehydrating effects of caffeine. Alcohol on the other hand will definitely dehydrate you. How do you feel? If you’re dehydrated you need to drink more. You can also use urine colour as an indicator; it should be light or straw coloured. Key messages for fluid energy: 1) Are you drinking enough water for your needs? 2) Are you dehydrated? Use how you feel and urine colour as an indicator. 3) Are you getting fluids from healthy foods like fruit and vegetables? Hormonal energy Your body has a range of glands that produce special messengers called hormones. These perform a vast range of roles in your body, from making you feel good to ensuring your metabolism works properly. Some of the key hormones are: Insulin and glucagon Thyroxine Serotonin Adrenaline and cortisol Between them they can play a huge part in how energetic you feel. Let’s have a little look at why. Insulin and glucagon – this pair of hormones work together to control your blood glucose levels. This is important, as your brain needs a steady supply of glucose to enable it to function. You know that confused, weak, irritated or dizzy feeling you can get when you haven’t eaten for hours? If your blood glucose drops too low, glucagon leaps into action telling your body to release some it has stored away for emergencies like this. That’s why sometimes you can be hungry, not eat and your hunger goes away. You only have a limited supply though, so it’s important to top up with quality carbohydrate. Insulin on the other hand goes to work when your blood glucose is too high, like after a big meal or that half packet of biscuits. When you overindulge your body can overreact, releasing too much
balancing light and dark
That time of year has come. Your alarm goes off, your eyelids peel open slowly, feeling heavier than a truck full of elephants. You press snooze, they close, your alarm sounds again. Surely that wasn’t five minutes? You fight back, hitting snooze for a second time, managing a rather smug grin for cleverly setting your alarm ten minutes before you actually needed to get up. But there it goes again! Have you entered some sort of time warp??? This time, there’s no back-up plan, and no wry smile. Instead a reluctant hand creeps from beneath the nice warm duvet and pulls slowly at the curtain, looking to let in a bit of light and stir your brain into action ready for the day ahead. But to your disappointment all you are greeted by is yet more darkness, somebody has stolen the sun. And the warmth you’ve become accustomed to in summer, especially this year for a nice change. Zombie-like you rise, arms hanging loosely by your side as you shuffle to the bathroom in your fluffy animal slippers. You know you’re still half asleep as after getting out of the shower you find yourself trying to comb your hair with your toothbrush. Time for a coffee. If you recognise the scenario above you’re not alone. This scene, and many like it are repeated at least five times a week across Britain between the months of September and March. And that’s over half the year! So what’s going on? Well it’s all to do with your big warm friend in the sky, the sun. As well as offering warmth in the summer months, he also gives you something essential for life, light. Sunlight is a rich source of vitamin D which helps build healthy teeth and bones. It also helps your food to grow and gives it the nutrition you need to perform at your very best. And very crucially, it helps to regulate levels of hormones like cortisol, melatonin and others that play such a big part in regulating your mood and energy levels. A lack of sunlight can leave you feeling down, as in Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD, lethargic and demotivated. Obviously too much can be bad for you too with sunburn and the associated risks, but in British winter you’re far likely to get too little. So what can you do about it? Well, quite a lot actually. To start with, you can realise that your body clock, or circadian rhythm changes with the seasons. In the shorter days of the year you’ll probably need more sleep and be more tired. Up until Thomas Edyson interfered with nature with the invention of his now fairly widely used lightbulb (you may have seen them in the shops), people generally went to bed much earlier in the winter months. In fact, research shows that before TV’s, the internet, 4G phones and electric lighting, people slept for many more hours than they do these days, averaging over 9 hours a night if not more. OK, so you may not be able to hibernate for winter (some remote villages in France and other parts of the world still effectively do this) but you can get yourself to bed at a reasonable time and prepare your sleeping environment as best you can to wake feeling refreshed in the morning. Try these tips to help manage your way through the darker months: Get to bed before 11pm. In fact get to bed and switch off by 10:43 pm as on average it takes just over 15 minutes to fall asleep. Sleep in complete darkness. Get good curtains and switch off standby lights on electrical goods, or remove them altogether. Charge phones elsewhere or away somewhere if possible. Even the tiniest amount of light on any part of the skin can interfere with sleep quality. Don’t have it too hot. Sleeping in a cooler environment can help improve sleep quality. Light up your mornings. Try a Lumi clock, it wakes you up with a gradually increasing light instead of the stress of a noisy alarm clock. Not convinced it will work? Try it on a weekend morning when you don’t have to get up, you’ll be surprised. Get outside – make the most of breaks at work and in life to get some light in the day. Wrap up warm and get out for a walk, a run or just a trip to the park with Autumn in full splendour. Get away – plan a winter sun holiday, it’s amazing what an energy boost it can supply. Try a classical wake up – ditch the aggressive alarm for a calmer start to the day. Annoying alarms can be stressful causing big surges in adrenaline levels, which may be followed by a subsequent slump and not particularly good for you. Synchronise – if you can rise with the sun. This isn’t possible for everyone, but if you can, try it and watch your mood rise like the warm orange ball over that hill you can see out of your window. Sleep well, wake better. balance your light and dark, balance your life, balance your scales 🙂
